Category: Book Baristas

The Clairvoyants by Karen Brown was this past weekend’s read.  Brown teaches creative writing and literature at the University of South Florida, and this is her second novel. The Clairvoyants is the story of Martha, a young woman who can see the dead, and her sister Del who has been in a psychiatric facility for the past three years. The novel

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes murder… My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry is outside of this book barista’s usual genres, but for some reason grabbed my attention.  Call it a palette cleanser after tons of historical fiction. Call it the recommendation of a few of my library colleagues. The premise:  the slippery slope of the white lie.

One of my favorite historical fiction authors is back with a new novel featuring two stories in two different eras, linked by an apartment building.  We meet Geneva Kelly, a flapper from Maryland who frequents an illegal Jazz establishment called the Christopher Club.  When the Club is raided and Geneva is arrested, she strikes a deal with the prohibition agent

The life of Margaret Wise Brown, known especially for writing the children’s classics Goodnight Moon and the Runaway Bunny, is the subject of Amy Gary’s new book.  Gary discovered a trunk full of letters, poems, songs and manuscripts by Brown in Brown’s sister Roberta’s attic, and spent years cataloging and studying them.  What she learned paints a broader picture of this famous

Anita Hemmings is a senior at Vassar in 1897, a gifted Greek and Latin scholar, a beautiful soprano in the Glee Club, a fierce debater, voted most beautiful in her class, and roommate to one of the most popular (and wealthiest) students.  We learn that Anita is passing as white to attend Vassar, as African-Americans are not allowed as students

Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club, has just published another love letter to reading and to readers, called Books For Living.  I almost lost my breath when I learned Schwalbe had a new book coming out.  I savored every word of The End of Your Life Book Club, recommended it to countless friends and family

Emile Nouguier is a French engineer working on the Eiffel Tower with Gustav Eiffel, for completion by the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. His mother would like him to run the family glass business, to marry, and to provide her with grandchildren, all before her imminent death.   Caitriona Wallace is a young Scottish widow from Glasgow, living when her

Hello historical fiction/fictional biography/touch of non graphic romance fans!  A shout out to fans of Victorian England and the monarchy as well.  And finally, salutations Masterpiece Theater junkies!  Ring for tea and get comfy because here is a book for you: Victoria by Daisy Goodwin.  Goodwin wrote the book while she wrote the script for PBS’s Masterpiece 7 part series beginning

The book shelves are flush with fictional biographies of women, many of whom are remembered as the wives of someone famous.  Marie Benedict adds to this library with The Other Einstein, a novel about Mileva Maric, brilliant mathematician and first wife of Albert Einstein.  Mileva is from a modest background and has a hip deformity that gives her a limp

Ray & Joan by Lisa Napoli is a fascinating new biography about Ray Kroc, the man who built McDonald’s into a billion dollar franchise, and Joan Kroc, his wife who gave that fortune away.  Ray Kroc was a salesman, peddling milk shake machines when he met the two brothers who started McDonald’s in California.  He signed on to help sell